Power tariff to be hiked in Meghalaya

Shillong, April 17 (PTI): The Meghalaya State Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved a 15 per cent hike in power tariffs, rejecting the state government’s proposal for a whopping 89 per cent increase in electricity rates.

“The commission has approved an average increase of about 15 per cent of the power tariff in the state for the current fiscal year,” commission chairman Anand Kumar said.

He said the commission has approved a 13 per cent hike of power tariff of around 2.5 lakh domestic consumers while the tariff for 20,000-odd commercial consumers and 158 industrial consumers have been hiked by about 15 per cent. The power tariff for BPL consumers (Kutir Jyoti metered consumers) has been raised the least with the commission approving only a 12 per cent hike, Kumar said.

The approved increase in power tariff will be effective from April 1, 2014 till March 31, 2015.

The Meghalaya Public Distribution Corporation Ltd had proposed an increase of 89 per cent in a tariff petition filed before the commission for 2014-15 to meet skyrocketing purchase and transmission cost of power, projected over Rs 600 crore for the current fiscal.

The fixed power charge for domestic consumers has been raised to Rs 40 per KW per month from the existing Rs 35.